Liberty Scrap Challenge – September Edition & Tutorial

by Nova on September 30, 2012

Wow, we are really racing through this challenge! I can’t believe we have reached September (just in the nick of time too!) already.

Postie has been a little delayed with the scraps Jo sent this month from the Organic Stitch Co – but I knew what was coming, a mix of non floral Liberty snippets so I had a project in mind & rummaging through my scraps to hand I have used the most non florals I had so hopefully the initial imagined effect is the same. The planes would be so pretty in florals too though I think :)

A fun little project for this month, almost no sew, one for the boys (& girls too) – a cute & simple to make decoration for kids rooms, baby showers, party decorations & the like.

Come fly with me…..

I went colourful & scrappy (well, this is the Liberty Scrap Challenge after all!) but can see this project in spots, stripes & monotone too. Liberty Tana lawn works so well though as it is thin & light so you don’t get too much bulk in the folds, even when paired with a quilting weight cotton solid as I did.

My fabric aeroplanes measure 5″ from tip to tail but you could make them any size you fancy. Maybe make a paper one first as a template to determine your preferred size. Make as many as you need, cut the same amount of scrappy rectangles in Liberty & coordinating fabrics.

Here’s how to make them like mine:

Fabric (paper) Plane Garland

What you will need:

Some Liberty Scraps cut into a rectangles measuring 4″ x 5″

Some coordinating cotton solid scraps cut into a rectangles measuring 4″ x 5″ (cut the same amount as your Liberty Scraps). I used scraps of quilting weight cotton

String, twine, yarn, ribbon or other garland making stringy stuff – cut a length as long as you want your garland to be.

Double sided sticky tape

How to:

Following manufacturers instructions, sandwich the Vliesofix between your Liberty rectangle & your solid rectangle by ironing it to the wrong side of your Liberty rectangle, peel away the paper backing and then iron your solid rectangle on to it. You might like to use a piece of baking parchment or one of those special non stick ironing sheets to save your iron from any potential sticky whoopsi’s.

Fold your stiffened rectangle in half lengthways & press.

Open out.

Line up the 45 degree angle line on your quilters ruler with the centre crease line

& cut off the corners

Fold in the ‘wings’ on either side & press

top stitch along the wing edges

fold back along the centre crease line with the wings to the inside.

& top stitch along the centre fold

fold the wings out to line up with the centre fold line & press

voila! a fabric aeroplane!

Attach to sting with a small piece of double sided sticky tape. Attach the string & tape in different places on each plane so they hang at various angles or if you prefer order in your planes attach them all from the same spot. You could sew them in place if you prefer.

You could possibly get away without top stiching the wings & centre fold if you wanted to go entirely no-sew, but I think the planes hold their shape a little better with the stitching.